In Japan, Gold Rush Is on for New iPhone

By Miho Inada and Mayumi Negishi

Wearing a mask of late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, a 39-year-old visual jockey who goes by the handle VJ_TAKUMA stands in line to buy a gold iPhone 5S in Tokyo’s Ginza district.

The annual media circus of iObsessed Japanese consumers lining up outside Apple Inc. shops – also known as the day the new iPhone goes on sale – kicked off on Friday with shoppers showing an overwhelming preference for the smartphone’s new golden makeover.

With the usual mix of bizarre (one woman carried a Steve Jobs body pillow) and bored (some camping out for more than a week to be among the first to buy the new iPhone), more than 500 people waited on lines stretching several blocks outside Apple’s store in Tokyo’s upscale Ginza neighborhood.

Two main trends were starting to emerge with the early-arriving crowd. There isn’t much interest in the iPhone 5C and people are digging the gold iPhone 5S.

With the latest handset, Apple broke from tradition introducing two new iPhone models at the same time. The iPhone 5S is the company’s high-end, flagship model featuring a faster processor and a fingerprint reader so users don’t need punch in a passcode. The iPhone 5C is slightly less expensive with a range of color options, but its specifications are similar to the existing iPhone 5.

A 39-year-old visual jockey who goes by the handle VJ_TAKUMA said he joined the line at 5 pm on Thursday, so he could get the gold 5S. “The gold gives off a more solid appearance,” said the VJ_TAKUMA, who declined to provide his actual name and wore a Steve Jobs mask along with a black mock turtleneck like the company’s late founder.

Other consumers said the gold was appealing because it was a color that wasn’t available on older iPhones, making it obvious at first glance that this was the newest iPhone.

Shota Matsushita and Masaki Fuke, two co-workers in their 20s, arrived last night eyeing the gold version – only to discover this morning that the 64-gigabyte gold model was already sold out.

“I was actually surprised to see it was so popular because I thought the Japanese are not big gold lovers,” said Mr. Matsushita, citing a Japanese preference for understated colors.

Also on line, 24-year old Shizuka Shimano, an employee in the service industry, said she planned to go for gold. “It’s new color. I found it’s not that flashy. The hue of the gold is rather subdued and soft,” she said.

Daiki Yamaura, 21, a college student from Saitama near Tokyo who lined up with his three friends for two days, said he’s buying an iPhone 5S because “I don’t feel the need to buy a 5C since it’s not much different from the iPhone 5 which I already have.”

Tetsuya Tamura, 44, and his 19-year-old son, Shion

The honor of being first in line went to a father and son duo. Tetsuya Tamura, 44, and his 19-year-old son, Shion, camped out outside the Apple store for 10 days. The elder Mr. Tamura took a holiday from work so he could wait on line, sleep on the sidewalk, and use public toilets in order to be the first ones in the store to buy the iPhone 5S.

During their 10-day wait, they endured a heat wave and waited out a typhoon inside the Apple store, because employees worried about their safety. But the father said “it was worth it.” The father-son pair said they weren’t interested in the 5C, because they saw no difference in functionality from the iPhone 5.

For Japan, this new iPhones are notable because they will be the first ones carried by the country’s biggest carrier, NTT DoCoMo Inc. As the last of Japan’s major carriers to offer the iPhone, DoCoMo’s entry into the market has triggered a price competition.

“So many customers told me how long they had waited” for DoCoMo to carry the iPhone, the carrier’s president, Kaoru Kato, said at a news conference on Friday. “It was enough to bring tears to my eyes.”

It’s part of DoCoMo’s push to regain customers who have left them to buy iPhones offered by competitors. “The real battle starts now,” he said.

About Japan Real Time

Japan Real Time is a newsy, concise guide to what works, what doesn’t and why in the one-time poster child for Asian development, as it struggles to keep pace with faster-growing neighbors while competing with Europe for Michelin-rated restaurants. Drawing on the expertise of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, the site provides an inside track on business, politics and lifestyle in Japan as it comes to terms with being overtaken by China as the world’s second-biggest economy. You can contact the editors at japanrealtime@wsj.com